Utah Grizzlies: Grizz advance to conference finals

WEST VALLEY CITY — Coaching in the critical Game 5 of the Grizzlies' second-round Kelly Cup playoff game Sunday at the E Center to eliminate the Victoria Salmon Kings wasn't that hard, said Utah coach Jason Christie.

All he had to do was mention the 12-hour bus/plane/ferry journey to Victoria if the Grizzlies lost Sunday in the best-of-seven series.

That, said Christie, and a prediction last week in a Victoria newspaper that the Salmon Kings would win the series in six games, was enough to motivate Utah to its highest playoff goal total in its three-year ECHL history in an 8-3 Salmon fry that eliminated the higher-seeded Fish Kings and bought Utah a ticket to the National Conference finals against conference regular-season champion Las Vegas.

That series won't begin until Monday, May 12, in Las Vegas — an eight-day layoff for Utah and a 10-day layoff for the Wranglers, who eliminated Alaska in five games last Friday night.

Sunday's explosion tied Utah's season high set Nov. 2 at, appropriately enough, Las Vegas in an 8-5 win.

This is the furthest the Grizzlies have ever gotten in the ECHL Kelly Cup playoffs, and it's the first time Las Vegas, which has been in the league much longer and had more regular-season successes than Utah, has ever advanced past the second round. The Grizzlies, a No. 3 seed in the ECHL West Division, have now knocked off the Nos. 1 and 2 seeds in the West.

For Christie, it's the first time he has coached a team past the second round since his rookie coaching year at then-ECHL Peoria in 2001.

For a team that's been red hot since the middle of last Wednesday's Game 3, when it began overcoming a 5-1 deficit against Victoria to come back and win 7-5, a long layoff may not be the best thing, but the Grizzlies are eager for it — and to have today and perhaps Tuesday off from practice.

"Well, we've got some banged-up guys in our dressing room," said Grizzly defenseman Andrew MacDonald, "and I think this rest is going to be really good for our guys. We've got some real warriors here, guys that are really banged up, and they really need the rest.

"That was another thing we wanted to win for was to get those guys some rest, give us an opportunity to just lay low for a bit."